A cottage in the countryside, be it weekend retreat or retirement home, is a fairly universal aspiration, but nowhere more so than in Russia, where even the Soviet regime recognised the importance of this social safety valve. Some scenes of the Russian Dacha lifestyle: the forest cabins where Russians retreat at weekends, leaving behind their city apartments to grow vegetables, breathe fresh air, drink vodka, stew themselves in steam bathes, or simply rusticate. Meet retired banker Mikhail Kareline, busily building his very own dacha outside Moscow… and glimpse the sadly shabby reality of life in decaying villages beyond the cities of modern Russia.
